US envoy meets Pakistani Islamist leader: embassy

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — The US ambassador to Pakistan met with the leader of a hardline Islamic party on Tuesday, the embassy said, in the latest in a series of encounters with the country's opposition leaders.

Anne Patterson met Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat-ulema-Islam party and deputy chief of the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six radical parties, embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said.

Patterson's meeting with Rehman, who has previously voiced support for Afghanistan's Taliban movement, came a day after she held talks with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Patterson and Rehman discussed a range of issues, including "the importance of having free and fair elections," Colton told AFP.

"She also discussed importance of lifting the...